Alternative to a chimney??


 
I dont know about you guys,
But I have never been in that much of a hurry to get started.
Ribs: I usually prep em out of the fridge. Pull the membrane, mustard & rub em up and let em sit out untill the cooker is ready. I load up and light the chimney and Crack the 1st beer, game on. I love the slow prep & start process.
Of course that might change on the next cook after reading about a better smoke ring.
 
It certainly looks cool to light the charcoal with a burner, but for me, it's more trouble than it's worth. I just light the chimney when I am about a half hour away from putting the meat on. I will admit though that I'd probably use it in a pinch if I had one but to go out and buy one for lighting charcoal is a little over the top for me. YMMV.
 
They work great for starting larger cookers, a bit of overkill for the WSM though I believe some people here use them. You can pick one up at somewhere like Harbor Freight pretty cheap.
 
I use the Harbor Freight Push button Weed burner for starting my drum smokers, try dumping a flaming chimney of briqs down a 55 gallon drum once and you figure thats the last time I try that! It's also awkward to dump flaming lump into my BGE, so it gets the torch treatment. Always use the Weber chimney with the WSM's though, just habit I suppose?
 
I use the weed burner to light the coals in the chimney - Redundancy Ministry of Redundancy
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It's been about 2 years since I have used anything but my side burner on the gasser. If I am in a hurry I can get a chimney of rancher going in about 20 minutes. If I am in a big hurry I use the turkey fryer. You can get a chimney going pretty fast over a turkey fryer.
 

 

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